Employees at Home Depot. Many companies are still looking for help, but job openings and hiring have slowed in the past year.

The numbers:
The number of job openings in the U.S. fell to a two-year low in December, reflecting a slowdown in hiring tied to a softening economy.

Although job opening are still relatively high and hiring is steady, economists say the sharp drop toward the end of 2019 is a bit worrisome.

Job openings sank to 6.42 million in December from 6.79 million, t he Labor Department said Tuesday
. It’s the second significant decline in a row and openings have fallen by more than 1 million in the past 12 months.

Just a year ago, job openings climbed to the highest level on record at 7.63 million.

What remains to be seen is whether openings snap back in January after the unusually large back-to-back declines. The U.S. added a robust 225,000 new jobs in January to keep the unemployment rate near a 50-year low of 3.6%.

Market reaction:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average /zigman2/quotes/210598065/realtimeDJIA+3.15%
and S&P 500 /zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtimeSPX+2.62%
rose in Tuesday trades and are trading near or at record highs.

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